


(Binaural) Beat of the Drum

by Hyaluronic



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hypnosis, Mind Control, Ned and May make appearances but aren't there for long, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), ambiguous villain used for plot purposes, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:42:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21517654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyaluronic/pseuds/Hyaluronic
Summary: “What do you know about Binaural Beats?”Peter looked up from his computer unsure. He vaguely remembered a brief discussion about the topic in school, but nothing beyond it being anything more than a blurb about the science making a comeback in the early 2000’s.  “Not a lot? Just that it’s where two different beats are played separately, and the brain perceives the difference.”“Yep, but going a little more in depth, the difference in the frequency entrains your brain wave pattern to match the phantom beat, resulting in an altered state of mind.”----Or - Peter has the whole weekend to himself until he suddenly doesn't.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 129





	(Binaural) Beat of the Drum

**Author's Note:**

> So this came about while trying to study for my Microbiology class, how the two correlate to one another? No idea, but! I wanted to try and get more practice at writing Tony and Peter for the couple of plot bunnies I have running around in my brainpan and this is the word vomit that spewed forth. So sit back, suspend your science-y beliefs - because there is so much hand wavy science in this- and enjoy!

“What are the rules?”

Peter sighed, “No parties, no patrolling, if I go out be home by eleven.”

May smiled and gave her nephew a quick peck on the cheek. “Alright, I have to go, the conference is just for the weekend. Call me if you need anything and if you can’t get a hold of me, please call Mrs. Leeds she promised to be on standby in case of emergency.”

“Everything will be fine May,” Peter started, hands gently gripping his guardian’s shoulders in reassurance. “I’m 15, I can handle a few days by myself.”

A raised eyebrow met Peter’s reply. “You say that, but past experience tells me otherwise.”

Peter laughed. “I promise, no shenanigans this weekend.” He raised his pointer finger and middle finger, pledging to be good. “Scouts honor.”

“Alright, alright.” May looked towards the outside door of their apartment building, where a taxi had just pulled up honking its horn, before turning back to Peter with a smile. “I have to go, love you.” 

Peter returned her smile and moved to the open the door. “Love you to May, everything will be fine.”

May grabbed her bag and gave Peter a brief hug. “Knock on some wood, okay?” 

“I will. Go. You’re going to be late.” 

“Right, okay. Bye, Sweetheart!”

Peter waved while May made her way down the sidewalk and watched on in amusement as she dropped her bag trying to open the taxi door. He could see her laughing at herself in embarrassment, her hands fumbling to grab her bag before turning to wave at him once more before successfully opening the taxi door and getting in. He smiled and waved a finale time as the taxi disappeared down the street.

Peter grinned and turned to head up the stairs to the apartment. A whole weekend to himself!

\---- 

_“Dude, did you see the teaser trailer for the new Star Wars?”_

Peter dropped his controller onto his thigh with a sigh of defeat as his character died for the third time in the last 10 minutes. “Yeah, it looked awesome, Ned.”

_“And, yet, you sound so thrilled.”_

Peter rolled his eyes at the comment. “I am, just…” He looked around the small apartment with a shrug; it had only been a couple of hours since May had left, and yet he felt like he was already going stir crazy. He never knew trying to keep himself entertained with other things instead of patrolling would be so tedious. He really wanted to put his suite on and go swinging but he’d promised May that he wouldn’t. And, he wouldn’t! May had been notably pissed but also very understanding when he’d explained to her why he needed to be Spider-Man, had been very forgiving the numerous times he’d come home bruised and beaten, and had had tumultuous amounts of arguments with a certain billionaire in regard to his safety on patrol. He didn’t want to ruin the trust May had in him by disobeying, but he was just-.

_“Bored?”_

“So, so bored.” 

He could see Ned duck out of frame on Facetime and hear his laughter drift through the speakers. “Thanks, Ned.”

 _“Sorry,”_ Ned started, popping back up on the small screen of his phone with a cough, _“it’s just hard to picture you being bored. A couple of years ago and this would have been the highlight of your week. Apartment by yourself for the weekend, free reign to do whatever.”_

Peter smirked, grabbed his phone, and pushed himself off the couch to make his way towards the kitchen. “Yeah, well, a couple of years ago, I wasn’t diving off skyscrapers as a past time.”

_“Adrenaline junkie.”_

He wasn’t really an adrenaline junkie, at least, he didn’t think so - but few things could recreate the complete surge of freedom that swinging across the Queens skyline brought. The feeling of the air as it swept past, the smell of fresh air high above the fume-filled streets below, the total rush of free falling… eh, maybe he was an adrenaline junkie.

_“You could always call Tony Stark?”_

Peter pulled open the fridge and scrunched his forehead, “And tell him what?” 

_“I don’t know, you’re still technically his intern, right?”_

Peter rummaged through the fridge looking for the soda he’d stashed in there somewhere the night before. “Kind of? It’s more of an honorary thing.”

_“You could al…” Beepbeepbeep._

Peter blinked and stared at his phone in confusion.

_Call Failure._

“Huh.” Peter shoved the phone into his pocket, he’d call Ned back in a minute; first, he needed to find his wayward soda. He reached to shove the milk jug out of the way when a faint melody drifted through the room, the gentle scent of mint accompanying the haunting rhythm. A heavy feeling of dread settled in his stomach the same time as a tingling sensation started at the base of his skull. 

“What the-?” Peter stood from the fridge and turned to scan the room for the source of his discomfort, but nothing stood out. He closed his eyes and focused on the soft music that he swore sounded like the metallic tinkling of bells. He thought he could almost hear someone singing faintly along with the hushed music. He breathed deeply as his body seemed to relax against the anxious feeling that had set his Spidey-sense off, the mildly sweet aroma of mint blanketing him in gentle lassitude, shielding him from the world outside as the ghostly tune seemed to draw him in. 

Whoever was singing seemed stricken with such melancholy that Peter’s eyes welled in sympathy and his heart ached for the loss the singer was conveying through the brittle tones and eerie trill of bells. The soft lilt of the voice was a compelling force. There was an underlining urgency in the persons voice, compelling him forward.

“Peter!” 

Something cold and harsh stole the breath from his lungs as the world seemed to pop back into existence around him. Peter blinked against the brightness of the summer sun and stared wide eyed from his spot on top of his apartments balcony’s railing. He quickly stepped down from the metal fencing and back pedaled to the safety of the living room, his breath coming in harsh gasps as he tried to piece together what had just happened. He sniffled and brought a shaky hand to his cheeks swiping at the wetness he felt there. He stared at his hand with a furrowed brow as he realized he’d apparently been crying. 

“Peter!” The loud voice and the banging that followed had the teenager turning to stare quizzically at the front door of his apartment.

“What the what…?” He murmured looking back towards the open sliding glass doors that lead to the innocuous looking balcony. 

“Peter, come on man, your neighbors are starting to look at me weird.”

Peter blinked hard, “Ned?”

“Yes?” Came the muffled answer.

“How’d you get here so fast?” Peter questioned as he made his way to the door.

“Fast? I’ve been calling you for like the last 20 minutes.” 

“20 minutes?” Peter opened the door swiftly shaking his head in denial. “That can’t be right.”

Ned brought up his cell phone and clicked the screen on, showing the time to have been almost a half an hour since their facetime conversation failed. 

“But,” Peter started, glancing hesitantly from the fridge to the open balcony doors and back to Ned. “I was just…”

“Dude, are you alright?” 

Peter shook his head dumbly moving out of the way so Ned could make his way into the apartment. “Something weird just happened.”

Ned perked up. “Like, Spider-Man weird?”

“Maybe?”

Ned grinned. “Awesome!”

“Ned!” Peter admonished with a shake of the head.

Said teenager shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry?” 

\----

“Maybe it was a ghost?” Ned wondered out loud leaning back in the computer chair to stare curiously at Peter.

“I don’t think it was a ghost, pretty sure ghosts can’t make you lose time.” Peter explains, shoving Ned out of the way of the computer, and typing _music, mint, lost time_ into the Google search bar. 

“Maybe it was aliens?” 

Peter sighed for a moment before weighing his options and amending his search.

_Music, mint, lost time, aliens?_

And of course, the first search result that popped up was the Wikipedia page about alien abductions. His life was so weird.

“Totally aliens.” Ned stated with a dopy grin. “Google’s never wrong.”

“It’s not aliens!” Peter rebuked, biting his thumbnail in thought. But, honestly, maybe it could have been? He didn’t remember exactly what had happened, everything had since faded to a faint feeling of nostalgia, a gentle touch of emotion that had him longing for the soft vocals and faint flutter of bells that had seemed to call to him.

“But, if it was aliens,” Ned started with a knowing smirk, “you know who the expert on them would probably be?” 

“That crazy haired guy from the meme?” Peter answered even though he was already reaching for his cell phone.

“Just call him.”

Peter scrolled through his contacts and hesitated for just a moment before pressing call mobile. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to call Mr. Stark, it was just that he had finally started to form a good relationship with the man that didn’t involve him constantly being on the receiving end of a reprimand or being left out of missions. He had even invited Mr. Stark over for May’s birthday a few months ago and had been pleasantly surprised when both Pepper and Tony had shown up with a bottle of wine for May and the latest Starkpad for him and the suggestion of coming upstate before school started to work on upgrades for his suit. He really didn’t want to bother the man if this whole thing turned out to be nothing more than him overreacting.

Peter hugged his free arm tightly against his chest as the phone continued to ring, he glanced towards his friend who smiled encouragingly at him giving him two excited thumbs up. He was so sure the phone was going to go to voicemail that he was caught off guard when a gruff greeting drifted through the phone’s speaker.

“Um, hi. Hello, uh Mr. Stark.” Peter pressed his eyes tightly closed at the stupidity of his greeting. “I know it’s Friday and you’re probably busy, but I was hoping you could, maybe, help me with a problem?”

\----

“Okay, Kid. Go over this whole she-bang once more.”

“You didn’t have to come all the way down here, Mr. Stark.” Peter stated, watching as his mentor walked through his small apartment, the man picking up a random dvd case with a raised brow, turning to show Peter the case for the Twilight movie. 

Tony smirked at the eyeroll he received before setting the case back down. “And, yet, here I am.”

“Alright,” Peter started with a sigh, “There was this music – almost like Christmas bells? I could hear someone singing and I remember smelling some sort of mint. I don’t remember what happened next, but I ended up on the balcony with Ned banging on the door.”

Tony hummed as he tapped the side of his glasses. “FRIDAY, pull up the security footage from the Parker residence.”

“But we don’t have security…” Peter trailed off at Tony’s pointed look. “Seriously?”

Ned paled as he turned to stare at his friend with wide eyes. “Does that mean he saw….” 

“Don’t worry your superhero undies there, Ted, was it? I don’t make a habit out of watching ‘Keeping Up with the Parkers’ as a past time.” Tony focused on the small square of video feed that had popped up on his lenses.

Peter watched as a dark look seemed to settle over the older man, Tony glanced towards him before turning to stare at the balcony. A quiet moment passed before the harsh clearing of Tony’s throat broke the silence. “FRIDAY, run a scan for any unexpected frequencies. Highlight areas between 1 hertz to 20,000 hertz, ignore anything that sounds menial.”

Ned turned to Peter, whispering, “So, probably not aliens?”

“Why are you so focused on it being aliens?” 

A shrug. “Just think it would be cool is all.” 

“Dude.” Peter murmured with a shake of his head.

“Alright, Kiddies.” Tony tapped the side of his glasses once more before rubbing a hand over his mouth, eyes scanning the apartment before landing on the two teens. 

“Underoo’s pack a bag while I call May. I suddenly remembered there’s a mandatory intern meeting this weekend that you need to be at the compound for. Peter’s friend - we’ll drop you at your house on the way.”

\---- 

“What do you know about Binaural Beats?”

Peter looked up from his computer unsure. He vaguely remembered a brief discussion about the topic in school, but nothing beyond it being anything more than a blurb about the science making a comeback in the early 2000’s. “Not a lot? Just that it’s where two different beats are played separately, and the brain perceives the difference.”

“Yep, but going a little more in depth, the difference in the frequency entrains your brain wave pattern to match the phantom beat, resulting in an altered state of mind.” Tony tapped a pen against his chin staring at the blue holo-graph before him. He reached out and pinched a section of graph and flicked his fingers, the lines on the graph shifted to the mans desired need. “These are beta waves, associated with physical awareness.”

The shifting blue lines changed as Tony twisted his wrist and altered the graph once more, a set of yellow and red lines overlaying the blue. “And these are Alpha and Theta Waves, more commonly associated with a relaxed state and sleep.”

Peter watched as Tony flicked a finger and a green line appeared towards the bottom of the graph. “And this, my dear Spiderling, is what was floating around your apartment at the time of your episode.”

The green line wavered when Tony danced his fingers across the graph, the teen crinkled his forehead in thought before guessing, “Delta waves?”

Tony tapped his nose with a wink. “And circle gets the square.”

That couldn’t be right, Peter blinked in confusion. “Don’t you have to be in a deep sleep for your brain to produce Delta waves?”

“Apparently not.” Tony surmised, waving his hand so the graph minimized itself while the footage from the security camera from Peter’s apartment came forefront. 

The feed showed Peter standing quietly at the fridge for several minutes before he began to sluggishly make his way to the balcony doors, where he again stood for a few moments, the teens head tilted to the side as he listened to the phantom music before he opened the doors and made his way to the safety railing and climbing up. “FRIDAY, pause the video.”

 _“Video paused, Boss.”_

“Do you remember anything? Anything that might have given you any indication of why you climbed up onto the worlds shakiest railing just to stand there like you were waiting for the second coming?”

Peter looked from the paused video to his mentor shaking his head. “I really, really don’t, Mr. Stark.”

“Well, guess we better put our thinking caps on.” Tony said making his way out of the lab. “Come on, Mini-Me, neuroscience is not my strong suit, research awaits!”

Peter slipped out of his chair and followed the man down the hall. 

\----

Tony tossed another useless textbook down onto the common room’s coffee table. He swore if he read one more line regarding neurolinguistics and the Milton-model of hypnotic language and neural programming he was pretty sure his head would explode. Tony rubbed his face in exhaustion. This wasn’t really how he was expecting to spend his weekend. In fact, Pepper and he had booked a room at some quaint bed in breakfast in Maryland this weekend for some rest and relaxation; but, after hearing about Peter’s episode she had been more than understanding when he had had to cancel their plans to help their wayward kid. 

With a glance towards Peter, whom was curled up on the other end of the couch, Tony reached behind him and grabbed the fuzzy blanket off the back of his seat before standing and quietly draping it over Peter. The kid nuzzled into the warmth with a sniffle of contentment that Tony swore was causing his chest to tighten at the adorableness of it all.

“FRIDAY, lights, please.”

The rooms lights dimmed to a more comfortable level. Tony sighed, carding a hand through Peter’s hair, and tried not to smile as the kid leaned into the touch. “G’night, Kid.” 

The man readjusted the blanket more to his liking before looking around the room to make sure everything was in its place before heading out of the room and towards the empty guestroom across the hall. “Alert me of any changes, FRIDAY.”

_“Of course.”_

\----

_“Boss.”_

Tony grumbled incoherently as he rolled onto his back and blinked tiredly. “FRIDAY?”

_“Boss, there was a spike in frequencies in the one-to-two hertz range.”_

Tony scrubbed his hands over his face and slid out of bed ignoring the chill of the floor as he made his way towards the door. “Run a diagnostic and check security for any breaches.”

_“Running diagnostic now... All entrances to the compound remain secured.”_

“Good, good.” Tony walked across the hall and into the common room. “FRIDAY, Lights.”

Tony waited but nothing happened. “FRI?”

_“Something seems to be messing with my ability to control certain functions of the compound.”_

“Shit.” Tony looked up at the ceiling as if what was affecting his AI would show itself. He quickly made his way over to the couch hoping against hope that Peter would still be curled up sound asleep but found nothing but a rumpled blanket in place of his Spider-Kid. “Double shit.”

Tony sprinted towards the hallway, mind already coming up with a million different scenarios that could have happened to the kid in the few hours he’d been asleep, none of them good and all of them pissing him off at the simple thought of someone being able to bypass his security. “FRIDAY, can you locate Peter Parker?”

_“I have been blocked out of the security features of the compound, but last known location was the training grounds.”_

Training grounds. Tony took off down the hall. Why would the kid be there? The only thing of remote importance held there was….ah, hell… 

Tony quickened his pace, racing down the steps to the sub-level that would take him to the gymnasium that housed the compounds training equipment and Tony’s Binary Augmented Retro-Framing program, the program he currently utilized to design training-scenarios for the Avengers. 

“FIRDAY, see if you can back trace the block and hack it. As soon as you have control of security back, lockdown the compound.”

_“Of course, Boss.”_

\----

Tony peeked through the cracked door into the gym, trying to make out anything in the dimly lit room, when it seemed all was clear he slowly crept inside making sure he stayed against the wall.

He had only made it a few feet before something struck the wall in front of him causing him to jerk back in surprise. “What the-.” Tony barely had time to bring a hand up to block a punch to his jaw before backpedaling to avoid a kick to his abdomen. 

_“You have your pet trained very well, Stark.”_

Tony turned at the voice trying to decipher where the owner of the high pitched tone was, but he didn’t have the chance, having to jump to avoid a swipe to his feet. Even though the only light source in the room was coming from security lights, he could tell the slender figure in front of him was - “Pete?”

_“It was so easy to manipulate the child. His enhanced senses made it so easy. So very simple.”_

Tony looked up at the speakers high above the gym and questioned, “Too afraid to fight me like a man? You have to have a child to fight for you?” Before turning and fumbling against Peter’s attempts to subdue him. Tony grunted as a strike to his shoulder sent him staggering back against the wall.

Laughter resounded through the room, aggravating Tony. _“Says the man teaching a child to play soldier.”_

Tony grabbed the arm that was headed for his face and twisted sending Peter to his knees with a grunt. “Come on, Pete. Wakey, wakey.”

_“Oh, I’m afraid he can’t hear you at the moment, Stark. See, I learned from my mistake last time, while his enhanced senses make it easier to entrain delta wave lengths it also makes it easier to break through to waking when, say, a loud mouthed teenager decides to be a good Samaritan.”_

Brown eyes strained to stare at the smaller form under his grip noticing the wires leading from Peter’s ears and down the front of his shirt. “Shit.”

_“Don’t worry your sweet multi-billion dollar head Stark, once I have what I came for I will release the poor boy. He’s been programmed to take a nap once I am safely far away. Until then, he will be keeping you quite busy, I’m afraid.”_

Tony reached for the headphone wires but was brought up short when he had to release his hold or take the chance of having his nose smashed when the teens head slammed backwards. 

“Peter, kid. You really need to wake the heck up!” Tony shouted, bringing his arms up in a defensive position, eyes watching Peter as the kid circled around him. He needed to disable Peter long enough that he could make his way to gyms monitoring room, the only place that their little thief friend could be holed up. Tony glanced at the dimly lit door across the gym floor, quirking his eyebrow in thought. The small adjacent locker room wouldn’t hold the kid for long, but it might slow Peter down enough that he could at least attempt to engage the Iron Man suit and try and catch the would be robber. 

Tony bounced on the balls of his feet before feinting to the left and was happy when Peter fell for the trick, he quickly rushed to the right of the kid and tried his damnedest to make it to the door but stopped short as Peter somersaulted over him and landed in his way. “Okay, starting to get annoyed.”

At Peter’s blank stare, Tony took an angered breath, and clenched his fist - new plan. Tony threw a half hearted punch that Peter easily ducked, just as he had hoped. He then brought his knee up to try and catch Peter under the chin but the kid jerked back. Tony kept at it, taking a swing at the boy’s temple and grinning as Peter side-stepped to avoid the strike. “Glad to see those self-defense classes are paying off.”

Tony brought his leg up to kick Peter in the chest but hissed when, instead of dodging, the kid grasped his foot and twisted – hard - shoving him forward with a little more force than Peter usually fought with. Tony stumbled and turned as the kid started towards him. “FRIDAY?”

_“Boss?”_

“Are you still locked out?” Tony questioned with a grunt as a particular strong hit to his chest sent him stuttering back and wincing at the already forming bruise. 

_“All security functions to the compound are behind a personal firewall that I am in the process of trying to bypass.”_

Oh, he was going to enjoy taking his frustration out on their little home invader. FRIDAY might be locked out of security and he may be blocked from reaching the monitoring room, but he could still put a damper on things. Shoving back against Peter as the kid tried to take a swipe at his head, Tony aimed a swift kick to the teens knees and was pleasantly surprised the attack found purchase - laying Peter flat out on the ground. “Anyway you could send a power surge to the cray unit in the training grounds monitoring room?”

_“Of course, Boss, rerouting external power to the training grounds.”_

“Great, fant-ack!“ Tony squawked in shock as a pair of legs wrapped around his waist from behind and strong arms wrapped firmly around his neck. “Seriously, kid! I thought you were Spider-Man not Spider-Monkey!”

Tony choked as the arms tightened hampering his air supply. He brought his arms up to pull at the restriction. “Pete… Kind of…need air… to…”

Either FRIDAY had successfully rerouted the power or the oxygen deprivation was causing an intense buzzing auditory hallucination. Tony smacked at Peter’s arm cringing as the kid just tightened his grip completely cutting off his airway.

Tony staggered forward, trying his best not to panic at the complete lack of ability to breathe. He didn’t have time to worry about damage – to Peter or himself – as he slammed himself backward onto the floor knocking what little breath he had left out of himself; but, it seemed to do the trick as he felt himself take a few strained breaths when the pressure around his neck released.

 _“-ng move STARK!”_ Tony looked up breathlessly at the speakers having completely missed the first half the robber’s diatribe. 

“Oh, shut... up…” He whispered tiredly. 

_“This would have been simple, no one had to get hurt you imbecile! I took special care to make sure that everything was done peacefully! You had to go and ruin it all! You-you complete Milksop!”_

With a gentle shove, Tony pushed Peter’s legs from around his waist and rolled over with a harsh breath. In that moment, he felt like a geriatric trying to pull themselves up after an unceremonious fall. He was definitely starting to feel his age. Not that 47 was old per say, but he was most assuredly not a Spring Chicken anymore. 

Tony glanced to his side as Peter groaned, taking note that the poor kid was curling into a ball, no doubt aching from being body slammed onto the floor. Apparently, a solid knock to the noggin had the same waking affect as a loud mouthed teenager.

“YOU!” 

Tony snapped his head up at the shout, his unknown intruder finally making his grand entrance. He barely had time to get to his feet before the overhead lights in the gym flared to life allowing him an unobstructed view of a tall, slender man with spiky brown hair and bright green eyes plowing towards him.

_“System restored to full functionality. Initiating Rainy-Day Protocol.”_

Tony smirked at FRIDAY’s announcement and brought a hand up to catch the intruder’s arm as the man lashed out. 

“Next time you feel like trying to steal something,” He started hauling back a fist of his own, “don’t.” With that Tony slammed his fist firmly into the man’s jaw watching with satisfaction as the guy slumped to the ground, unconscious.

“Mis’er S’ark?” 

Tony glanced down to see Peter blinking sleepily up at him in confusion. “Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty.”

Peter groaned as he shifted to a sitting position staring at the unconscious man at his mentor’s feet. “Wha?”

Tony reached down and helped the kid the rest of the way up. “Bad guy.” 

Peter nodded, unsure, hands coming up to pull at the headphones nestled tightly in his ears. Staring at the small buds with an owlish expression. 

Tony sighed, patting the kid on the shoulder.

\----

“I feel so embarrassed.” Peter murmured eyes focused on the mug of hot chocolate before him. He was down in the lab with Tony while FRIDAY ran a diagnostic on her systems to make sure everything was in working order.

Tony looked up at the quiet declaration, “Don’t be, Kid. It happens.”

Peter rested his chin on his hands, blinking at the computer that was currently running the security feed from the previous night, up until the intruder overrode parts of the system. “What was he after anyways?”

“Not sure, I’m thinking he was after the augmented interface we use for training scenarios but until he’s questioned, we won’t know for sure.” 

Peter nodded with a sniffle.

Tony raised an eyebrow at him. “You okay?”

A shake of the head. “Just, the… the whole thing, the music he was playing to…” Peter waved his hand in supplement of actual words.

Tony stayed quiet but nodded.

“It was just… I mean, it was like the singer was… that they…” He bit his lip unsure of how to convey what he was thinking. He didn’t know how to explain the pull of the music that still had him feeling a phantom need to do anything to help the person singing, to help ease the pain he could remember underlining the words and music.

“Pete,” Tony moved to stand in front of Peter, “whatever you felt or thought, I’m not saying it wasn’t real, but that’s what Binaural Beats do, they change the wavelengths of your brain and leave you open to neural programing.”

“So, I was hypnotized?” Peter made a sour face at the thought.

“Simply put.” Tony replied, watching as the kid huffed – clearly affronted. 

“So lame.”

“Yup.” Tony replied, popping the ‘p’.

Peter pursed his lips. “We’re never telling anyone we almost got owned by a Nerdy Dudebro, right?”

Tony huffed a laughed, “Right.”


End file.
